Slashdot Mirror
Welcome To Alphanumeric Car Hell (theverge.com)
Jason H. Harper, writing for The Verge: Et tu, Hyundai? Until recently, the Korean brand offered two upmarket cars, the Genesis and the Equus. The first name had biblical shades and the latter shared a title with a play where an adolescent likes to get naked and straddle horses. So while the connotations were a bit muddled, at least they were memorable. Now Hyundai has spun Genesis into its own luxury brand, akin to what Toyota did with Lexus decades ago. And in so doing, it has cast off those memorable names in favor of an alphanumeric naming strategy. The Hyundai Genesis is reborn as the Genesis G80 and the Equus sheds its horsey homage to become the G90, which guarantees that I won't remember the new names. I'll just call the G90 the Model-Formerly-Known-as-Equus. And while the two models seemed well differentiated before, now the distinctions are hazy. The G90 apparently has 10 more units of something over the G80. Perhaps it is 10 percent better. Ten percent bigger? Ten grand more expensive? Welcome to Alphanumeric Hell.The rest of the article is worth a read as well.
And the numbers actually meant something back in the day at least for Mercedes and BMW. A 280SE was the 2.8 liter Super body with fuel injection (Einspritz), so the midsize sedan, unless qualified with an option like the 280SE 4.5 or the 450SEL 6.9, which happened to be a totally different production line than a standard 450SEL. A 300D was the 3.0L diesel, not super or long, so the small sedan, and a 450SL was the 4.5 liter Super Light (sports car). my favorite was a 500SEL (5.0L Super Einspritz Lange). It all made perfect sense.
12:50 - press return.
This used to be true, but has changed somewhat after the E46s (model year 1998-2005), E90's (2006-2011) and F30s (2012-present). For example, the E46 328ci did have an inline 6 cylinder 2.8L. The E90's started introducing turbos. And most of the F30s have a turbocharged 4 cylinder that displaces less than 2L (source), the 335 has a turbocharged 6. It used to be reliable and have that direct correlation to some aspect of the car, now it's just a rough estimate of comparable performance, 318 < 328 < 330 < 335.
Except when they don't [wikipedia.org], and put a 2.0 liter engine in a *30, or a 3.0 liter engine in a *28.
Fair point. There are exceptions (most notably the M and Z series) but even those follow clear patterns for the most part. The Z1 - Z4 were simply sequential, they made a Z1 roadster until they upgraded the design to Z2, etc... (Z8 and Z9 are still dumb.) And the M series are just amped up versions of existing models, based on the associated number. An M3 is a 3-series (small frame) with all the bells and whistles. Likewise an M5 is a tricked out 5-series (mid-size).
The odd/even thing is stupid
No argument here. I didn't like the decision, especially as someone who drove an old 328is 2-door (1999 E36 platform). But I still respect that they've made a choice (whether or not I agree with that choice) rather than just slapping random letter number combos on their cars.
This signature is false.
Worst article ever? What next? Some lazy ass complains that he can not understand numbers in clock?
"The United States notwithstanding, most of the rest of the world has sensibly moved on to measurements based on factors of ten - centimeters, kilograms, and so on. But for some bizarre reason, people worldwide stubbornly refuse to move to a decimal time system. What the heck does 11:15pm mean, anyway? And noon - when in the world is that? I can't understand any of it. Why anyone insists on sticking with such an obtuse, arcane, and difficult-to-master system of time measurement is beyond my comprehension."
#DeleteChrome
The Z8 and Z9 are named thus because the project began as Z07 with Z meaning roadster, and 07 being a homage to the BMW 507 from the 1950ies.
by wannabe ( 90895 )
You were here in the 90s, Mr. 8 digit user ID?
I think you lost your reading glasses, old man. :)
I had a 5-digit ID too, and from my memory, there's some truth to both of your statements. Slashdot the past few years has been markedly worse than it used to be, but even back in its "glory days" it still had a lot of garbage that attracted the same kind of complaints.
One of those content slumps is why I quit following the site for a while, and when I got around to checking back I'd forgotten my password and no longer had access to the email I used so recovery was no option. Which is why I post as AC now, if I bother to post at all. For a while I tried to remember the password, but eventually I quit, and by then I didn't even want to make a new account. IMO it hasn't been worth making a new account here for years.